The difficulty of managing shared natural resources - which results in many of the environmental problems that exist today - was allegorised in a social dilemma called “The Tragedy of the Commons” (also called the commons dilemma) by Garrett Hardin, an ecologist (1968). Hardin described a field for grazing cattle which is shared by a village. The field must not be overused otherwise the grass will get used up, perhaps to a stage when replenishment is no longer possible. If everyone allows one cow onto the land, there is enough for all. If an individual villager allows more than one cow to graze, that villager - called a free-rider - will benefit. But if others follow suit, everyone suffers as the resource becomes depleted. The dilemma is therefore the choice between short-term individual and long-term collective interests. Taking more than others (competition) may provide temporary benefits to some, but agreeing to limit your use of the resource (cooperation) ultimately benefits all. A good example of the temptation not to cooperate in a commons dilemma is our reluctance to limit our fuel usage. Have you ever reasoned to yourself like this: “If I don’t use up some of the remaining fuel in the world, someone else will; all I can do is delay the inevitable depletion by a few seconds”? (See laboratory social dilemmas for a description of how this works experimentally.)
Hardin, G. (1968). The tragedy of the commons. Science, 162, 1243– 1248.
defined by Rachel New